LEARN MAAY ALPHABET – (ENGLISH VERSION)

The most recent attempt to transcribe Maay was
carried out by the late Mustapha Sheikh who used the first Latin-based
transcription. However, the first organized and systematic attempt to
institutionalize the Alif-Maay script was initiated by a group of young, well
educated expatriate workers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 1988. This group
produced the first modern script in a small booklet entitled “Baroy Af-Somali
Maay” (Learn Alif-Maay). They have also produced a collection of over 500
proverbs and substantial number of vocabularies.

In 1993, another
young, and well educated group in Toronto, Canada, produced an improved version
of the Jeddah Group and presented a paper entitled, “Alif-Maay” at the First
International Conference of the Inter-riverine Studies Association held in
Toronto in November, 1994.

More than a decade
later, another group including members of the initial Toronto Group along with
a number of intellectuals, community leaders, and traditional elders created a
forum called Kulung Technical Committee. The purpose of this committee, like
those that preceded it, is to come up with a more standardized Af-Maay Script.
This group met several times in London, and Toronto, Canada. After long
discussions, we, the Alif-Maay Group, working under the direction of Kulung
Technical Committee, are convinced that this version of the script is as good
it can be, and therefore comprehensive enough to be presented for comments by
the Maay speaking peoples. Thus, we seek comments and suggestions, as well as
any instruction that you may kindly give to improve on the current script.

Maay Alphabet (
English Version )

The alphabet used
for writing Maay language is the same as the international Roman alphabet, with
letters chosen to represent the Maay phones (sound structure). It also uses
digraphs i.e. a sequence of two letters to represent single sounds. The Maay
alphabet has five primary vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and one semi-vowel ( Y ) and
twenty four consonants.

(1.00) Consonants:

B P T J JH D TH R
S SH DH G GH F Q K L M N NG W H Y Y’

(1.01) Vowels:

Maay has two major
categories of vowels: short and long according to the position they occupy in
the word in which they are located. Long vowels are spelled as double vowels.
They are pronounced exactly like short vowels except that they are longer:

A E I O U

AA EE II OO UU

(1.02) Semi-vowel
Y

Maay has one
semi-vowel “Y” which has a distinct pronunciation that is different from the
vowel sound produced by the vowel i and is used to represent the “ieh” sound
occurring ( felt ) most often at the end of Maay words. Example:

teesy (fly) moory
(animal enclosure) lamy (two) sedy (three)

Since the letter
‘Y’ is used both a consonant and vowel, because of its double role the
following Shorongshoor rule has been put together to clarify when one can use
‘Y’ as a consonant and as a vowel:

(1.03)
Shorongshoor

(b) If the letter
‘y’ is preceded by a vowel it is used as consonant and is pronounced as it is
‘y’.

Example: Bay (name
of a region) Biyooley ( name of a city) siyeed (eight)

(P) On the other
hand, if the letter ‘y’ is preceded by a consonant, then the letter ‘y’ is used
like vowel and is pronounced as ‘ieh’.

Example: toory =
knife misgy = sorghum Jyny = heaven shyny = bee

(1.04) Glottal
stop (Shalreepy) (‘)

A vowel followed
by different vowel or the same vowel which is not a long vowel is separated
from the other vowel by an apostrophe(‘) ‘shalreepy’.

Example: ta’ady =
betray ba’iid = deer su’aal = question

(1.05) Doubling

In the Maay
alphabet, only letters ‘r’ and ‘l’ are doubled within some words.

Example :

RR arry (soil)
irry (grey hair) marry ( the whole quran)

LL hillimy (dream)
billaawy (diger) duullaang ( to invade)

(1.06)
Pronunciation Guide

P

The letter ‘p’ is
used when the sound of ‘b’is not stressed. Its sound is produced by the lips,
it is some what similar to the letter ‘p’ in the English alphabet.

It is guttural and
it has similar sound as ‘J’. It represent a special Maay sound structure,

jhab = fracture
jheer = shyness jhiring =beard jhaapy = fire wood

Th:

It is pronounced
as the article ‘the’ in the English language, it is used when the sound of ‘d’
is not stressed.

mathal =
appointment etheb = politeness mathy = head mithow = black

Gh:

It sounds like the
“ ghain ” of the Arabic alphabet, and it is used when the sound of ‘g’ is not
stressed.

maghy = name
aghaar = green meghyng = refuge lughy = legs

Ng:

It represent a
special Maay sound structure, it is similar to the end sound of many English
words (eg. morning, caring, helping)

angkaar = curse
oong = thirst ming = house lang = man sang = nose

Y’

It represent a
special Maay sound structure, the sound that the letter ‘y’’ represents is also
found in the words signore, and agnello of the Italian language.

y’aay’uur = cat
y’isaang = the youngest maay’y = ocean

(1.07)
Pronunciation difference of (b, d, g) and (p, th, gh)

The letters b, d,
and g are stressed when they are part of a word, but they are not doubled
within a word. When they are not stressed, the letter p, th, gh and are used
respectively in their place. Note how the following words are pronounced.

The following Maay
words are written similarly (have the same spelling) but have different
pronunciations and different meanings. They are distinguished according to the
position they occupy in the words and sentences in which they are located as
shown in the following example: